Season 9 standout Jibri Bell has taken his 90 Day Fiancé fanfare and used it to launch himself into space. Fronting the galactic punk act Black Serbs, Bell's story is a tug-of-war between his mother's judgement, his fiancé's unhappiness over living in South Dakota, and the impasse his relationship has caused in getting his band back together. Previously inactive since 2020, Bell and his Black Serbs have shown their first signs of new life with the April release of "Keep That Tempo."
Vibrant and unpredictable, Black Serbs navigate their celestial sound with a punk certainty and Balkan bounce that's distinctly their own. Though their contributions to the space punk scene are sparse, there's a galaxy of neighboring sound set to be submerged in.
Ho99o9
Though kindred in fuzz and immediacy, the New Jersey based horrorcore punk act skews significantly darker in tone. Where Black Serbs blip and bounce into "Bijemo," Ho99o9 scratches and claws their way through considerably more visceral material.
As Bell often elevates the urgency of his raps with screaming, Ho99o9 head, theOGM, similarly rips through his vocal work with the grittiness like sandpaper. Aggressive narrators of a raw reality, Ho99o9's music is as explosive as it is unsettling.
The Garden
Germinating since 2011, alt mimes/jesters of malcontent, The Garden, are on the precipice of an outbreak. With fans flooding club rooms and early afternoon festival slots in makeup lifted directly from The Crow, their lure and lore is as important as the music behind it.
Electronic, gloomy, and sometimes schizophrenic, The Garden are as likely to invoke a mosh pit as they are to start a cybergoth dance party. Purveyors of the dance pit in their own right, Black Serbs feed off the energy they create and use it as both a warning and invitation.
Rico Nasty
Rapper, screamer, "sugar trapper" Rico Nasty is an agent of chaos. Tearing into every track she's on like a tornado, her energy is as unstoppable as it is ominous. It also makes her an outlier of sorts.
More of an aggressive industrial assault than it is fringe hip-hop, Nasty's music is less about finding a place to fit in and more about putting the fear of God into everyone in her way. Too nonlinear for rap and too dance-centric for proper punk, Black Serbs define their own genre by stripping away all boundaries and existing far beyond the realm of rap and reality TV.
Machine Girl
Echoing everything from early Nine Inch Nails to reginal New York hardcore, Long Island's Machine Girl sucks in listeners like a cyclone and dumps them headfirst into a doorless underground rave. Unrelenting in breakbeat and intent, the energies they invoke, cathartic or chaotic, are undeniable.
Black Serbs serve as energizers themselves. Attacking the soundstage with the three-headed vocal hydra of Bell, Daveed Dacho, and Damn Brandi, listeners never really know who the next verse is coming from, or which level of intensity it's going to be laced with. While Bell and Dacho's rapping is more scream intensive, Brandi's more straightforward approach is anything but lacking in directness.
AREA21
The extraterrestrial alter egos to Dutch EDM goliaths Martin Garrix and Maejor, AREA21 share more in common with Bell's Black Serbs than just their cartoon avatars. In sight, sound, and scenery, they populate the same sonic space.
Black Serbs have grown more accessible with each release. From "Down Down Down" to "Keep That Tempo," producer Space Ca$h's work stands up with the sleekest production on the radio. If AREA21 and Black Serbs are neighbors in a cartoon sky, "Pogo" and "Elevate Your Love" live in succession on the community DJ's house mix.
100 Gecs
100 gecs burst onto the scene with a mallet in 2019 and have remained one of the more important and polarizing acts since. The cyber wizards' glitched out hyperpop pairs the late aughts scene shamelessness of The Medic Droid with the cinematic fuzz of today's best dystopian futurepop.
The production-forward nature of most of Black Serbs' music galvanizes their impact. Even on their heaviest efforts, Space Ca$h's production sets a slick setting before Bell and crew crank the energy to 11. Much like 100 Gecs, Blacks Serbs' music serves to stir up and shift whatever setting they're uploaded into.
JELEEL!
JELEEL! and Jibri share a lot in common, starting with their names. Always shirtless and built like a linebacker, JALEEL! launches himself into every song and video with an intensity that stands in stark contrast to his high-pitched voice.
Soft spoken and no stranger to being shirtless himself, Jibri's stage persona lives behind a runway ready wardrobe like Clark Kent in a pink suit. Behind the kinetic energy of their respective frontmen, Black Serbs and JELEEL! attack their mediums with a ferocity that doesn't always match the intensity of their soundscape.
Full Tac
Covering everything from JUUL culture to respectful simping, Full Tac overlays the weirdest parts of modernity atop his decidedly heavy production work. Though his music is usually home to another artists' vocals, his production is undeniably the star of the show.
Echoing Full Tac, Black Serbs' production work is always front and center. Space Ca$h's sleek synths and breakbeats propels each song into hyperdrive before Bell, Dacho, and Damn Brandi jump onboard to steer the spaceship. As the group ventures into more club-friendly territory, Ca$h's influence has never been more important.
Death Grips
Raw and relentless, Death Grips' signature brand of hip-hop heavy electro noise punk was unleashed in 2011 and hasn't slowed down. With a live show that's more akin to The Dillinger Escape Plan than anyone else, Death Grips are as much of an experience as they are a musical act.
Black Serbs thrive in the live arena. With colorful chaos crashing in from every inch of the stage, the Black Serbs' brand of electro punk hits with an entirely new sense of urgency. As Jibri, Damn Brandi, Daveed, and Space Ca$h jump and thrash their way through their music, the energy they expel is as effervescent as it is contagious.
The Prodigy
The Prodigy's brand of big beat alternative dance music hit the '90s like an asteroid and changed the landscape forever. Beyond being the forefathers of numerous fringe electronic genres, they were aesthetically unmistakable. Singer Keith Flint's multicolored bihawk is one of the most iconic hairstyles of all time and perfectly encapsulated the unhinged energy that made them inimitable.
There's no question that The Prodigy serve major influence over every aspect of Bell's Black Serbs. Few artists, if any, merged rock and electronica better than they did. With how much they stood out in sight and sound from everyone else, they may have just as well been from (or out of) space. As Black Serbs continue their stylistic evolution, The Prodigy's vibrant and fearless sonic expression should serve as a blueprint for their interstellar journey.